First Bandsaw Boxes - 1st name Initial Design

Of all the woodworking projects I’ve done for gifts this season, these were probably the most fun. After watching all you wood-jocks having too much fun making them, I thought I would give it a go. Except for breaking several band-saw blades things went well.

My first was pic 3. Used a couple of pieces of hickory along with some poplar and cedar. Using the hard woods made it a little difficult to cut through with my lower grade band-saw. For the rest I glued up a variety of poplar, pine and cedar scraps I had around and things went much smoother.

Since the boxes were to be gifts for Christmas I decided to personalize them. My idea was to design them using the first initial of each grandson’s name. B from Blake, M from Micah, N from Nick and C from Clay. The N and the C letters both were quite challenging but the final outcomes I thought looked good. Of all the woodworking gifts I gave, these got the greatest attention.

The interior is flocked. Exterior is Danish oil followed by several coats of poly oil base.

My wife sugested I make some BS boxes made out of initials as gifts this year and I just couldn’t figure out how to do it. Now, after looking at the great job you did I think I may be able to give it a go.

Thanks everyone. These were really fun to make and very inexpensive. These were my first but I liked it so much, I know now what I’ll be doing with some of my left-over wood.

Hey americancanuck, I used MS Word to make my letter patterns. There’s lots of weird fonts available for free online. With the N and the C I had to really search for the right font that would be acceptable for the drawers. (My nephew’s daughter is wanting one with a J pattern. Still working on that one). After I found the correct size I cut the letters out and used spray adhesive to attach to the wood. Comes off easy with water and a little sanding.